Review: Politics of Tamils - In Between the Maneuvers of America and India

by Yatheenthira

Politics of Tamils - In Between the Maneuvers of America and India

In the previous post, we observed a few issues that have been taking place and putting Geneva front and centre. In this post, we will look closely at a few more issues. Recently, a friend shared an opinion with a slight difference. It was a slightly difference perspective. Beyond how fitting it is to today's environment, the reality which cannot be denied is that the environment prevailing today is one in which no idea can be immediately rejected.

That friend said that America's maneuvers in Geneva were actually not against the Sri Lankan government but against the Indian government. Strategically speaking, why would America take actions towards giving problems to India when such a close relationship exists between America and India? To my question, my friend's answer was that America will break up India in the long term.

Everyone can accept the fact that the only country that can challenge the world order led by America is China. The US-India bloc is a tactic within this strategy that can counter China. Because China has developed itself, this is seen by both America and India as a threat. So why is America going to break up India in this situation? However, that friend of mine noted that some people continue to see things in this perspective. He declared definitively that after the release of the photo of the killing of Liberation Tigers leader Prabakaran's son Balanchandran, there is an intentional trend to give troubles to India, and that what happened to the Soviet Union will happen to India.

There are many different research organisations based in the US and operating with a crosshair on China's growth that continue to create arguments against China. Many US defense industry analysts continue to state opinions along the lines that China is a threat to US maneuvers. Given this, even though the idea is a little strange that America is trying to weaken its strategic ally India, which is useful in handling its strategic enemy China, if you look at the situation in another way, it will take a little more discussion to clarify how the issues of Tamils fall through the cracks between America-India maneuvering by the time opinions like all these take shape. If we go a little deeper, an impossible predicament has been reached in taking forward Tamil politics beyond the America-India dealings. In this way, politics that get trapped in the middle, in the future, might still exist or may also vanish.

International relations is something that has two avenues. One is the front door, and the other is the back door. Research and criticisms that continue to be released are based squarely on front-door relations. But tightness or slackness in international relations occur in large part via the back-door. In accordance to the alliances formed through the back door, the issues that need to be discussed by meeting and talking in person through the front door will get decided. If agreements can't be formed through back-door negotiations, then the discussions via the front-door will be unfriendly. The current, ongoing pressures against the Sri Lankan government in Geneva is a discussion happening via the front-door. But definitely many back-door discussions will have happened. According to those such back-door discussions, the front-door pressures in Geneva will get tighter or ease up.

Here, during front-door talks, a few stratagems (deceptive tactics) are being adopted. That is, particularly for small countries like Sri Lanka, to try to give off the appearance that it will not budge on any issue. If such governments want to ensure that their influence amongst the people does not diminish, it is important to show such a tightness in relations. But many different agreements would have been reached in back-door talks. Small governments continue to make use of such tricks in order to escape and survive. When describing people conducting talks with American officials, it is fitting here to also read it as "Subramaniam Swamy" and "Sri Lankan officials". Even though people like Subramaniam Swamy make themselves look like clowns, people like them are in reality the representatives of the secret world. The decisions of the secret world are, in the end, seen as the decisions of the entire world.

When looking at things this way, Tamils do not have their political destiny in their own hands. It has become a task in itself to figure out in whose hands it is in. It seems as if the politics of Tamils in in the hands of America and India. But the purpose of this post is expressing that Tamil politics is caught in the middle of American and Indian maneuvers. But, as it would seem, being stuck this way, in the end, means getting thrown away by the moves of the two sides, or a situation in which the moves of the two sides causes suffocation and death. If you want to escape this, you need to make moves so that you are either fully within one side's camp and are dependent on it, or you stand outside both camps and depend on neither. In regards to this, it is important for the Tamil leadership to think and act.

In Southern Lanka, there are discussions among some that the Tamil National Alliance's (TNA) moves towards America, in the long run, might be an obstacle to Ranil Wickremasinghe taking the seat of power. They try to bolster their argument by citing as evidence an article written by D. Sivaram (Taraki), the politico-military analyst and conferred by the Liberation Tigers leader with the honour "Great Person".

In his article, Sivaram argued that the US inserted itself during J. R. Jeyawardene's time in power because of its strategic interest in South Asia. People are taking that argument and trying to fit it to today's situation. Except for the fact that the US is applying pressure on the SL government on the basis of its strategic interests, it is not upholding Tamil interests. Therefore, the approach towards America by the Tamil National Alliance is not a correct one. This will not bring benefit to Tamil people.

Those people in the South who put forward their argument also do not think about the interests of the Tamil people. Rather, they achieve the effect of making people think, out of fear, that the TNA's growing closeness to America will weaken Ranil Wickremasinghe's support. There are many different perspectives in which such arguments make place. In the centre of all such arguments will always be the Tamils.